Category Archives: Choosing An Insurance Agent

Choosing an insurance agent: Experience is not expertise

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In my last blog post, I wrote how you should choose an agent with enough experience to be competent. More than 2 years is enough, but 5 to 10 years experience is preferable. Anything more than 10 years is not relevant. But experience does not guarantee expertise.

True expertise is hard to find. I have always been surprised how little your average, experienced & successful agent knows about the products they sell, or how much bad information they can provide to their customers & prospective customers. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: Questions to ask before you buy

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Most people do not know the important questions to ask, or what to look for in the replies of an insurance agent, to know if an agent is deserving of your business. This blog post will give you tips on what questions to ask, and how to ask them. so you are able to see through empty claims of great customer service & expertise.

If you have visited the “about us” section of almost any insurance agency web site, you read the same things: Our customers are the focus of our business. We are committed to personal service. We work hard to get you the coverage you need at a low price, etc. The truth is anybody can claim to provide a high level or personal customer service, and just about everyone claims to provide it. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: What to expect from a good agent

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I started this blog series about how to choose an agent, telling you about the hype you hear from every agent, usually in a confident, friendly manner: “I have many years experience. I represent a large, old, financially stable company with 24 hour claims service. I’m an independent agent, and I can shop the home & auto insurance market for you (except I don’t tell you I don’t represent some of the biggest & best companies). I put my customers first. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

There are lots of well-established, financially strong insurance companies. Most companies have 24 hour claims reporting. Almost all of the reasons agents tell you why you should insure with them are not unique, and they are common among all insurance companies. If other companies offer the same benefits, why shouldn’t you choose the company with the lowest price?

Some agents do add value with the service they provide, and this blog post will show you how to recognize this value, and allow you to tell the agents really putting their customers first, from the majority of agents merely claiming to put their customers first. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: Your agent’s office location

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How important is it for your agent’s office to be close to your home or work? For a lot of people, this is an important factor for choosing an agent. But for most people, choosing an agent based on the agent’s office location can be a mistake. Depending on your needs, the location of your agent’s office may not be important at all. This blog post will tell you when having an agent close to you is important, and when choosing the agent closest to you is a mistake. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: Referrals

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One thing recommended to insurance shoppers, often by objective sources like your state’s department of insurance informational brochures, is to ask your friends, family, & neighbors for their opinions about insurance companies. In my opinion, personal referrals are not useful in making sure you will get good customer service from your agent or insurance company. This blog post will explain why referrals are not reliable, and where to find more objective measures of customer service, so you can avoid having problems when you most need the help of your agent or company. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: Check for license & complaints

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Whether you buy your insurance from an agent, or directly from the company, you need to make sure your agent or company is properly licensed in your state to sell the type of insurance you are buying, and see if there has been any complaints or disciplinary actions against your agent or company. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: How much experience is needed?

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Here is my second tip for choosing an insurance agent, which can save you from making costly mistakes:

Know how much experience is important, & avoid inexperienced agents

Some agents try to convince you to insure with them based on their many years of experience, or the experience of their employees. I know one agent added up the total number of years of experience of their agency employees to conclude their combined experience equals over 100 hundred years! This sounds impressive, but does it really benefit the customer? I don’t think so. Continue reading →

Choosing an insurance agent: Is your agent any good?

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Do you have a good insurance agent? Most people find out the hard way when they have a problem or a claim. This is the first in a series of blog posts giving you tips on how to find an excellent agent and avoid bad ones. The first thing you may think, is you can avoid having to worry about finding a good agent by not having an agent at all, and buying direct from the insurance company. Doesn’t it cost more to have an insurance agent? Isn’t it cheaper to buy direct, anyway? Continue reading →

Insurance Agents Work for You

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One of the advantages of shopping for insurance online is you can find out the price, without having to speak with an insurance sales person, and avoid someone trying to sell you an insurance policy. But this advantage is often a disadvantage to getting the best price for your insurance.

Getting insurance quotes from all the leading insurance companies through the Internet is a great way to start shopping for your insurance, but NOT talking to the insurance company, or an agent representing the insurance company quoting you, can be a mistake causing you to pay a lot more for your insurance than you need pay. I’ll tell you how to make the insurance company or agent work for you, so you can get the lowest price for which you qualify.

When I used to sell auto & home insurance, I would contact people whom had received online insurance quotes through our company website, and review the quotes with them. Frequently, I could look at their situation, ask a few additional questions, find additional discounts, or other ways to save them money, and get them a much better price.

Insurance agents and insurance company representatives are experts on their insurance company’s rules and rating plans, so they have the knowledge to consult with you, and get you a better price, in a way your can’t do online.

For example, someone shopping for auto insurance has a car insurance history of 35 months of continuous coverage. They get a quote online showing the price for the auto insurance effective today as $500 for every 6 months.

An insurance agent calls them the following day, and tells them they qualify for an additional discount once they have 3 years of continuous insurance coverage (36 months), so if they start their auto insurance policy with an effective date a month from now, the 6 month price is $350.

That phone call from the insurance agent saved this person $300 a year. What if the person getting the quote online liked the price at $500, and bought the policy when they were quoted? They would be paying $150 more every 6 months than they need pay.

Insurance rating plans are very sophisticated these days. A good agent or insurance company representative knows the details of how to get you the best price, which you can’t do on your own, quoting yourself through an insurance company website.

Some people, shopping for a better insurance rate on the Internet, put invalid phone numbers, or do not answer or call back, when the insurance company calls them to follow up on the quote they received.

I understand why people want to avoid sales people, particularly if they expect to tell the sales person they don’t want the policy. Many people have the impression insurance sales people are like some used cars sale people, and use aggressive or persistent sales tactics. In my experience, this is very uncommon in auto & home insurance sales.

Insurance agents and companies may contact you to review the insurance quote you received online, ask you additional questions and verify information, to make sure they are getting you the best and most accurate price, ask you why you are shopping, explain to you why their insurance company is a good choice for you, and ask you to buy, or ask for a payment to start the policy. Don’t be intimidated because they want you as a customer. If you are not interested, once they have confirmed they are quoting you the best price they can offer, simply tell them why you are not interested, and politely end the call. Most insurance sales people appreciate a firm “No,” and move on to the next prospect.

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If an insurance company contacts you, following up on an online insurance quote you received, answer the phone or call them back, even if the price you received online was too expensive for you. You may be surprised how the highest price quote can turn into the best price quote by having a ten minute conversation on the phone.

In fact, if the insurance company does not contact you, it is a good idea to follow up yourself, by calling the insurance company, and having someone form the insurance company review the online insurance price quote you received.

Don’t ignore the voice mail, and fail to return the call left by the insurance company. Unless you don’t want to insure with the company, no matter how low the price, it is worth your time to have your insurance quote reviewed by an expert working for the company.

Many agents or insurance companies will try to contact you only once, but some are more persistent. Don’t expect them to take the hint you are not interested when you don’t call them back. The agent does not know if you are not interested, or simply busy, and why would you not be interested, if you requested a price quote?

A lot of customers make the mistake of insuring with the first insurance company they contact saving them money.

If you really want to save the MOST money on insurance, get quotes from all the leading insurance companies, and do not choose an insurance company, until you have had all the quotes you received, reviewed by a human being working for the insurance company. Consider the price, the advantages of each insurance company, and use my website insurance company reviews to choose the best company for you.

If an insurance company or agent contacts you, after you have had all your insurance quotes reviewed by an agent or company employee, and you have already chosen another insurance company, reply to them, by phone or e-mail, and let them know you have finished shopping, and you no longer wish to be contacted by them, unless they can offer you a better price in the future.

If the only reason you did not choose them was because of price, let them work for you, and contact you in the future, to quote you again. Rates are always changing, and the company having an expensive rate for you now, may have the best rate for you at your next policy renewal.

In the unlikely event you speak with an aggressive salesperson, and they continue to call you after you told them not to call you, ask to be placed on their company’s Do Not Call list. It can take up to 30 days for you to be added to the do not call list, but once you are on it, the individual contacting you, and the insurance company, can face steep fines if they call you again.

Do you always speak with the insurance company after getting price quotes online? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Do I Need an Insurance Agent?

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Buying auto insurance or homeowners insurance direct from the insurance company is easier than ever. Modern technology enables you to contact your insurance company when it is convenient for you. In the 21st century, is there any need for a local agent, working 9 am to 5 pm weekdays, in an office close to you? What’s the benefit to you? What do insurance agents do for you?

In my opinion, most agents are not worth paying more for your insurance.

The argument made by insurance agents is the personal service they provide is worth it. Buying home or car insurance is not like buying groceries at the supermarket. Applying for insurance is like applying for a loan: insurance companies have rules and you need to qualify for the insurance. How insurance works, and the coverage options available, can be confusing for the average consumer to understand.

Having a good insurance agent working for you can help you understand and buy the coverage you need, get all the discounts you deserve, prevent problems, and fix any problems when they do occur. The trouble is there are very few agents doing these things for their customers.

It’s not because there are few agents competent and caring about their customers. It’s because insurance agents don’t work for you, they work for themselves and the insurance company. Although many agents want to provide you with the best service, they have to put their needs ahead of yours in order to stay in business, or be successful.

Having a personal agent is rarely a bad thing, but its not worth paying a lot more for your insurance.

Fortunately, insurance companies paying commissions to agents are not necessarily more expensive than insurance companies selling direct to the public online. Get price quotes from all the leading insurance companies to find the best price for you. You can save $100s. Some insurance companies charge twice as much as others, for the same coverage, so its worth it to search for the best rates.

When shopping for auto or home insurance, first consider the insurance companies with the best price. Use the information on my website (see the link below) to evaluate the customer service of the insurance companies with the lowest prices. You may choose the best priced insurance company with a local agent. But some insurance companies with great reputations for customer service, like Amica & USAA, don’t have local agents.

Here is why I think it’s not worth it to pay more for having a local, personal insurance agent:

Insurance agents often fail to get you the insurance coverage you need at the best price.

The worst offending agents are the agents who don’t review your coverage options when you buy an auto insurance policy or homeowners insurance policy, or when you make a policy change, like adding a car.

An agent once quoted a price for my auto insurance without discussing the coverage I wanted. I had to ask about the coverage, and the agent quoted me a $1,000 deductible for Collision coverage on my car, when I had a $500 deductible. Had I bought his insurance, thinking I was saving money, when I was really getting less coverage, I would have been very upset when I had a claim.

However, there are many agents doing a good job of reviewing your coverage options. Yet there is still a problem. Many insurance agents represent one insurance company, and can’t offer you the coverage you need because their insurance company does not offer it.

Here’s one example:

If you buy a new car, owe more on the loan than the value of the car, which is not unusual due to the great amount of depreciation on new cars once you drive them off the lot, you should buy gap coverage, which covers the difference between the loan amount and the value of the car, if it is totaled.

Yet some insurance companies do not offer gap coverage, or may not offer it for leased cars, when other insurance companies will offer it on leased cars.

Agents don’t discuss your need for coverage they can’t sell you, if that means they will lose your business. You may need a coverage your agent’s company does not offer, but you will never find out about it.

This matters even more with homeowners insurance, where an insurance company not offering a coverage, available from another insurance company,  can cost you tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, by not covering a claim.

Independent insurance agents have an advantage regarding coverage, because they represent several insurance companies, and they can choose the insurance company with the most appropriate coverage for you.

But even if your insurance company offers a coverage you need, it is very likely your agent will not mention it.

When I reviewed a customer’s insurance policy, or when I was selling an insurance policy, I tried to be very thorough in explaining the coverage available and what is not covered. But no agent, or customer, has the time to review all the options available.

When you contact an agent for a home or auto insurance quote, the agent has to collect the information needed to qualify you, quote you the correct price, and discuss your coverage. Although the agent will include and discuss all the “important” coverage, agents rarely invest the extra time to get the information from you to determine your insurance needs.

For example, you may be buying a house in your name alone, where you and your longterm boyfriend or girlfriend will live. Much of the furnishings are jointly owned, or owned by your significant other. Your unmarried (unless you are in civil union) significant other’s property is not covered unless your agent includes them as an “insured,” if the insurance company allows it. Many agents may never discuss this with you.  You may find out the hard way much of your personal property is not covered when you have a claim.

Your home could be subject to an expensive clean up, if your sewer or drains back up into your home, which you may have to pay for yourself, since your agent did not think to tell you about buyng the additional water back up coverage.

Most agents want you to be happy with your coverage when the unexpected happens. But your agent has no legal responsibility to make sure you bought the coverage you need.

The personal service offered by insurance agents does not even mean you will get the best price your insurance company can offer you.

If your agent is concerned they are going to lose your business, because they know you shop your rates once a year, or their insurance company recently had a large rate increase, they will most likely look at your policy to make sure they are getting the best price for you.

But if your agent knows you are a loyal customer, or does not think you will shop for better rates, your agent is not going to spend their time reviewing all their customers policies to make sure they are not missing any discounts.

Agents are paid a commission which is a percentage of the insurance premium. The more expensive your premium, the more money your agent makes. If your agent does not think they will lose your business, they are not going to spend a lot of their time looking for ways to reduce their income. Your agent usually isn’t deliberately charging you a higher premium, but they have no incentive to find ways to lower your premium.

Customers can depend only on themselves to make sure they ask the questions, and spend the time needed, to make sure they get the proper insurance coverage, and not over pay for it.

Using my website, and reading my blog, can give you the information to help you work with insurance companies and agents to get the coverage you need. Shopping your auto & home insurance once a year can make sure you don’t pay too much for it.

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